THE beginnings of a social shift seems to be underway in late night TV – people are tuning away from traditional, joke-y talk shows like Leno and Letterman and turning more to news.

OK, it’s not always real news.

But in the last year, the ratings for “Nightline” as well as fake-news shows “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” are on the rise – and the talk shows are headed down.

It’s a reminder that we are, after all, a country still at war, some people in TV are saying.

“We live in difficult times and I do think there is a thirst for information at the moment and this is one of the ways that that need is expressing itself,” says “Nightline” executive producer, James Goldston.

So far this year, Leno’s ratings are down 6 percent compared to last year – from 6.2 million to 5.8 million. Letterman is also down 6 percent, from 4.7 million to 4.4 million, according to the trade magazine Media Life and Nielsen.

“Nightline” meanwhile, grew 4 percent compared to last year, to 3.75 million total viewers.

On cable, “The Colbert Report” and “The Daily Show” have turned in some of their best ratings of the season with “Colbert” performing 40 percent better than it did last month. “The Daily Show” grew 30 percent compared to last month.

The Comedy Central shows lay no special claim to seriousness.

“The goal is simply to make people laugh,” says Comedy Central’s Michele Gainless, the network’s executive vice president and general manager.

Studies keep showing that, although both Comedy Central shows are spoofs, a large percentage of young viewers call them their main source of news.

“In terms of the fake news show, they carry a lot of information,” says “Nightline’s” Goldston. “They do a lot more politics on those shows than some of the cable news channels will and they honestly carry a lot of news.”

Ironically, just as the Comedy Central shows are peaking, Ben Karlin, the executive producer for both programs, suddenly announced his resignation late last week.

Sources said there was no behind-the-scenes intrigue involved.

After more than eight years on the job, Karlin sinply felt burned out.

The traditional late-night talk shows – Letterman and Leno – continue to have audiences that dwarf the “Nightline” and the fake shows.

But media people tend to put a lot of stock in trends. And the trend is unmistakable.

ABC tried several years ago to woo David Letterman away from CBS to replace Ted Koppel and “Nighline” at 11:30 p.m.